5 best television shows ever

Blackadder

Every now and then, I listen to an episode of Blackadder, quite the same way as one does a memorable recording of a famed orchestra — albeit one playing something a bit rude. Rowan Atkinson’s incomparable power over comedic inflection renders his savage line-readings immortal — even when all he’s saying is the name ‘Bob!

The Sopranos

A mob boss goes to see a shrink. David Chase’s seminal and groundbreaking drama series is built on a flimsy premise, and yet, thanks to artful and intelligent writing and tremendous character work by one of the finest ever ensembles, The Sopranos became one of those rare works of art you could simultaneously applaud and embrace.

Monty Python’s Flying Circus

One of my favourite Monty Python sketches is called Novel Writing, where cricket-like commentary is given as the novelist Thomas Hardy walks out to his desk, acknowledges the “very good natured Bank Holiday crowd” and starts off his new book with a “The”, sending the audience and commentators in raptures. That is, until he crosses it out. “Oh dear,” says Michael Palin, the first announcer, while Graham Chapman, the second announcer, is more fatalistic

Arrested Development

This Mitchell Hurwitz show is a magic trick. The phrase might bother resident magician Gob Bluth — “Illusion, Michael,” he memorably corrects. “A trick is something a whore does for money… or candy.” — but this is sitcom sleight-of-hand like no other, a multilayered comedy built from killer dialogue, a wild cast and in-jokes meant to be discovered many viewings deep.

MASH
A show about a war that lasted a few seasons more than the war itself, Larry Gelbart’s MASH would work in any world, in any context. It helps an island viewer, of course, to watch a meditation on the futility of battle,